Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication such as voice, data, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., bandwidth and transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems. Typically, a wireless communication system comprises several base stations, wherein each base station communicates with the mobile station using a forward link and each mobile station communicates with base station using a reverse link.
In the communication system described above, mobile station makes a resource assignment request to the base station. In response, the base station assigns the requested resource, if available, and provides the assignment information using a communication channel. Typically, the mobile stations are assigned a forward link data channel resources via an assignment messages that is transmitted over a designated channel.
Most of the communication system described above use a forward link and a reverse link in conjunction with a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (H-ARQ) scheme to communicate data and other information. H-ARQ techniques have been shown to provide significant improvement in capacity. With Hybrid ARQ, a packet is sent using multiple transmissions. The packet transmission could be terminated early if the receiver can decode the packet prior to receiving all the transmission. However, when there is large number of mobile stations requesting resource assignments, the number of transmissions increases when using H-ARQ. In order to ensure that assignment information is received timely, the base station would have to increase the bandwidth, lower the number of transmissions, requiring additional signaling information or not use H-ARQ.
Several methods have been employed in order maintain bandwidth and use H-ARQ, such as a multicast system. In a typical multicast system, assignment information is broadcasted over a shared channel all the mobile stations in communication with the base stations, thereby eliminating use of a dedicated resource to provide the assignment information. However, this solution creates heavy computational burden on the mobile station, since every mobile must attempt to decode every transmitted frame.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method of managing the dedicated and share resources that allows transmission of assignment or other data packets to multiple mobile stations.